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Brzezinski to speak March 29 on U.S. foreign policy

March 22, 2007

(Durham, NC) Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, will deliver a public lecture, “Will American Superpower Have a Second Chance?” at Duke University on Thursday, March 29.

The lecture begins at 3:30 pm at the Terry Sanford Institute for Public Policy and is free and open to the public.

An outspoken critic of the United States' unilateral invasion of Iraq, Brzezinski is expected to draw from his recently published book, Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower. In it he assesses the short- and long-term results of the Iraq war, while putting them in context of the global changes that have taken place during the last 20 years.

Washington Post columnist David Ignatus describes Brzezinski’s book as a manifesto for the next president. A political realist known for his no-nonsense writing style, Brzezinski offers an analysis of the past three presidencies and asserts the world is in the midst of a “global political awakening.” He calls the current president’s foreign policy mistakes “catastrophic” and suggests America’s recovery from them depends upon our next president’s ability to implement foreign policies that acknowledge these global changes.

In 1981 Brzezinski was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his role in normalizing U.S.-China relations. A professor of American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, he is a frequent commentator in domestic and foreign media. He appears often on “The NewsHour” with Jim Lehrer and was recently interviewed by Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central.

This event is sponsored by the Living History Program at the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy. Founded and funded by Jay Rutherfurd, the program records interviews and lectures by prominent individuals who have participated in national and international events. Former participants include Robert McNamara, Elie Wiesel, Les Aspin and Jesse Jackson.